This Cadillac Escalade V-8 Failed After Just 4 Miles

General Motors is under investigation for a string of engine failures.

Photo by: YouTube

By: Anthony Alaniz

Feb 2, 2025 at 9:00am ET

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New cars shouldn’t have engines that fail after just a few miles. However, one 2023 Cadillac Escalade suffered a catastrophic failure with just four miles on the odometer. A new video from Dave’s Auto Center attempts to discover why.

It’s bad news right from the start, when a piece of broken connecting rod falls out of the engine during an early stage of disassembly. It’s not until the tech removes the piston that the technicians find a potential culprit—a single wrist pin clip on one of the cylinders is missing. They believe the clip popped off, leading to a chain reaction that caused the shutdown. Whatever happened was bad enough to break the piston skirt.

The 6.2-liter V-8 L87 engine powers various models, including the Escalade, GMC Yukon, Chevrolet Suburban, and GM’s full-size pickups. So a failure like this with so few miles should be an outlier. However, General Motors has been having issues with the L87. Last year, GM announced a program for customers to replace certain 6.2-liter V-8 L87 engines in Escalades due to oversized lifter bores.

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Just a few weeks ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced it would investigate General Motors for engine failures related to the 6.2-liter V-8 L87 engine. This includes the 2021-2023 Cadillac Escalade. However, the NHTSA document says the failures resulted from a failing connecting rod bearing, not missing parts.

The investigation involves an estimated 877,710 vehicles from GM, which includes the 2019-2024 Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra and the 2021-2024 Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, and Escalade. The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation said it has received 39 complaints related to engine failures. Here's to hoping GM solves the problem.